Two candidates compete for Delta city collector post amid talk of making it an appointed position in future

Two candidates are seeking election for Delta city collector, a position some city leaders want to make an appointed post.

Teresa Byram

Teresa Lesch Byram and Carla Perry are competing to fill a one-year, unexpired term as collector in the April 2 election.

Byram discussed her candidacy in emailed responses to a Southeast Missourian questionnaire. Perry, reached by phone, declined to answer questions.

Scott City attorney Francis Siebert, who provides legal advice to the city of Delta, said city officials discussed seeking voter approval of a measure that would make the collector position an appointed one.

But officials were unable to meet the deadline for placing such an issue on the April ballot. But it could be a ballot issue in the April 2020 election, Siebert said.

State statute stipulates city collectors be elected in fourth-class cities unless voters approve a measure to make it an appointed position, he said.

Byram wrote in an email she believes the position should remain an elected one.

“The people deserve to vote for this and all positions pertaining to Delta,” she wrote.

Byram, who works part time at Orgill, a hardware distributor in Sikeston, Missouri, is making her first run for public office.

She wrote she is seeking to fill the unexpired term so she can run for a full term next year.

“Once the city sees how well I can do the job, they will re-elect me,” she added.

Byram views “honesty and availability” as her biggest assets for the collector job.

“I have had several family members in the past hold different offices in Delta,” she wrote.

If elected collector, Byram wrote she “would react promptly and not let things escalate. I want what is best for the people of Delta. They need someone that is going to be honest and fair to them.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641